Posted on 04/04/2008 10:10:42 AM PDT by presidio9
Pirates seized control of a French cruise ship Friday off the coast of Somalia, France's Foreign Ministry said.
A ministry official said details about the attack were scarce, and it was not clear how many crew members were on board the ship or if there were any passengers.
The ship is in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.
The official declined to identify the vessel or its owner.
The ministry has set up a crisis center to deal with the situation, said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year.
The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.
Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy and
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Well, that’s good. I hope they all get out safely.
Sounds like the dogs of war are about to be unleashed, including “Task Force 150” which is under US Command. Hopefully, the pirates will be terminated with extreme prejudice.
I beleive what happened was a lone fisherman, 67 years of age, was at sea and barley visible to the French vessle when the decision by the French Captain was to surrender. The Captain, a supporter of the former French President, Jacque Chiracque (sp), felt compelled to raise the white flag. It took the French vessle an hour to get along side the occupant of the fishing boat and another three hours to get him to take command of the French vessle.
The fisherman’s main concern that he would be late getting home and his wife would worry.
The French vessle was occupied with French big game hunters since all were in possession of their accordians
update,, “Le Ponant”, 30 crew members, no passengers
Pirates seize French ship off Somalia
JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080404/ap_on_re_af/somalia_pirate_attack_4
PARIS - Pirates seized control of a French vessel carrying 30 crew members Friday off the coast of Somalia, the French government and the ship’s owner said.
Attackers stormed aboard “Le Ponant” as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, said officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM.
The corporate officials said they were in close contact with the French Foreign Ministry, which said in a statement that a cruise boat and its crew had been attacked by pirates.
The ship was in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean, the ministry said. At least some of the crew members are French, it said.
Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year.
The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.
Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy, and a transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help has struggled to assert control.
The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years.
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All the cruise ships on which I have been a passenger had a shotgun or two for trapshooting off the aft deck. Surely a speedboat full of would-be pirates could be discouraged with a few whiffs of birdshot in their faces.
The French Naval Commando Force was formed in Great Britain during World War Two by the Free French and took part in the Normandy Invasion (as depicted in the movie The Longest Day). The unit, nicknamed the Green Berets, currently has 500 members and is considered by many in the Special Operations field to be one of the best waterborne special forces units operating out of mainland Europe.
Traditionally, no. There was one case where a cruise ship used a sonic device to repel a pirate attack last year. It’s sad to say that, unless you have some Marines or other Blackwater-types on board, having an armory on a cruise ship would just get people killed.
Water cannons are far more effective, sink the boats while they are approaching. Leave the drowning rats to the sharks.
They'll see your bird shot and raise you some RPGs and AK 47 return fire. These guys are armed to the teeth.
Something tells me that realistically more firepower than that would be needed. My first weapon of choice would be some .50 cal machine guns mounted at strategic points on the ship and lots of ammunition but I’m not really an expert.
The French carrier Charles de Gaulle has been deployed to the region, and will arrive sometime around June, 2010..
Not with the armament that a lot of modern-day pirates wield. Submachine guns, assault rifles, pintle-mounted machine guns on their speedboats, explosives, grenades, all sorts of black market small arms. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were pirates running around in the Indian Ocean with heavier stuff like grenade launchers. A couple of trap-shooting shotguns would be useless against pirates that knew what they were doing and struck at night.
}:-)4
People will make jokes, but I think these guys will be very sorry when the French armed forces get through with them. Sarkozy’s in the big chair these days.
Capture no one, sink everyone.
Although competent varminters or large bore target competitors who could pick off the guy at the helm would always be welcome.
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